This Took Too Long
After a long time, I finally decided to create and upload my website.
As with many projects, I got lost along the way in wild ideas, throwing everything away multiple times. This taught me, once again, a fundamental lesson:
Perfectionism is the enemy of good.
I don't mean this as an empty quote, but as something I've experienced: I want GioStrives to be an incredible project, so I tried to create a website already packed with features, translations and tools. Yet today, there's very little to show: I have a bunch of half-baked projects, and anything I write pales in comparison to the work of the peers I see around me.
This is just another trap that has been with me for years: I fail to try because I fear my work isn't good enough. In the meantime, I compare myself to others, dreaming of reaching them but without the will to try and fail as many times as it takes.
I believe that, in this day and age, this effect is even stronger. In the past, it was much more difficult to compare yourself with exceptional people because it was simply harder to encounter them directly. Nowadays, we can read the latest papers by the most brilliant minds on a phone, in a matter of seconds, or watch video lectures from the best universities.
Algorithms constantly expose us to what they deem most successful, wrapping our internet bubble in a glossy coat of "human excellence" and leaving little room to accept our small attempts and their mediocrity. While our eyes are fed artificially enhanced images of perfection and our intellectual activities are actively challenged by large language models, we forget that we're human and that most of us are just average.
And there's nothing wrong with not being exceptional: the issue isn't what we have, but what we do with it.
Why "GioStrives"?
This project, GioStrives, is an attempt at showing you my "weak" side: I've lived too many years in fear of my mistakes, in the shadow of things I think I should know but don't.
I'm using a nickname to hide my identity a little: I'm here to learn, work and build, without fear of being judged for what I don't know or for what will fail. Gio is my nickname, strives is what I intend to do here: try hard, probably failing along the way. That's what this is all about.
I'm passionate about AI, especially applied to learning and to automating menial tasks, and this project will try to walk you through my journey, hopefully collecting some useful experience and information along the way.
Today's Status
I've already started building some stuff: a plug-in for Anki (a flashcard app) that uses AI to make studying more active, a few YouTube videos and other media content. One could argue I already shipped something, but these projects are still very much works in progress.
As a father of young children, I'm trying to build apps that can help them learn: these, together with some YouTube videos documenting my journey, are the objectives I'll pursue in what little spare time I have.
Why add a blog? The reason is simple: writing takes less time than shooting videos and, unlike social media, it lets me reflect. These posts are meant for that.
Of course, I'm aiming for the moon, but with this project I want to make every step count: for me, and for anyone reading.
If you're up for the ride, then welcome to my ship's log!
GioStrives